How is the economy treating everyone?

I dont want this to be a thread about bashing the GOP or the DEMS. This is more of a it is what it is thread.

Ive been frequenting one of the Nikon forum boards a lot lately, seems every day a new person is announcing thier move to "Professional Photographer", seeing as how they got laid off that thier photography is more than 10% of thier income they are considered pro. Somewhat of a morbid joke.

Things are ok in my neck of the woods. My 401k has been shredded into tatters but as the economy recovers that will recover along with it.

Aside from that, the "Economy crisis" hasnt really affected me or any of my friends or family.

There have been a few (less than a dozen out of 2,500) people laid off at work here nobody i know though. The technical department seems intact. We are doing well enough that the company is still issuing bonuses and giving raises (i just got a 2k a year raise and $1000 bonus), but they arent giving them to everyone.

So far everyone i personally know has been relativly unaffected. My workload is affected, as the LEC's and customers are not upgrading networks meaning they arent breaking things for me to fix. Should pick up soon.


How are things in your neck of the woods?

Keep your fingers crossed for Randy

 

So far, myself or the company I work for are unaffected. We are employee owned, and that is our retirement. What the company makes... we get. We continue to grow, but I expect it to catch up in a couple of years, hopefully nothing drastic, but I dont expect us to make it through squeaky clean. Right now we are buying companies who are going under, that show a chance of profitability with a little work. BTW I work for Houchens Industries. Most of you prolly never heard of it.

The small community where I live continues to grow as well...

 

Since we live in a military community our economy doesn't really follow the national trends. But some of the guys in our local mustang club have been laid off and I have some family that is going through a rough time. I'm really glad I got through nursing school.

 

I work in a hospital and my department just got a bunch of new equipment and a bunch of new duties so I am getting more hours and I have to take some certification test that if I pass I will get a raise if I don't pass I get to study and take the tests again till I pass lol

 

Well, considering I only work part time and am a full time student, it really hasn't effected me yet. Hopefully the economy will be better in a year and a half when I graduate. If not, I might have a tough time finding work.

 

Thankfully it hasn't really affected me in a negative way, ofcourse our business is a little slow because people aren't buying houses or cars the same way they were a year ago, but on the flip-side people are looking for the best rates and doing a little more shopping so that can bring in some new business.

My brother got laid off a couple of months ago, he was an auto detailer for a local dealership and they laid off about 10 employees.

My other brother works in H.R. for Dollar General Corp. and they are having one of their best years and on track for max bonus..

I've just learned how to manage my money better, paid off any debt that I had which was minimal and have started putting money back.. Started a roth IRA about 3 months ago and invested in the more stable parts of the economy for the time being so my retirement fund hasn't felt much of an impact like the 401k's..

I swear though, if you could hear my dad talking to clients, it's like the world is coming to an end, I try and try to get him off of the "doom and gloom" trail, but it doesn't work.. I've just decided to ride it out and live my life to the fullest, if **** comes crashing down, oh well, we'll deal with it the best we can. Keeping as positive as possible.

 

Well I once thought I'd be able to go home from college and get a few shifts in at the restaurant, but I found out today it's doubtful I am.


Michigans unemployment rate...+11.5%

 

still in college, have a good chunk in savings. Searching for an internship which is damn near impossible.

 

I'm a part-time community college student with $2,300 in savings to pay for my car until I can find a job....As for my family, we're slowly moving more and more money into Gold. My dad lost about $120k in retirement in the stocks so far, and still refuses to pull his remaining $68,000 out and put it into Gold (must be stubborn, I don't know)....

 

I try not to think about it...

 

People over exaggerate how bad it really is. Thus they go into panic mode and here we are. For me though, luckily I only have one year left of school so not much is left in stocks since tuition sucked it all up anyway. If this happened 4 years ago, college would be rough though since I' have nothing for tuition.

 

Right now for me we are hiring more ppl and getting lots of overtime. I work for a concrete reinforcement industry.

 

well for my work its getting slow well acutally its been slow for like a year now

 

Everythings going pretty well for me. My industry isn't really affected by the economy, as everyone needs water. lol. (90% of my companies work is for water treatment plants, etc)

Besides the fact that i might have trouble getting a mortgage in September, everythings aight.

 

No affect here really. Still have my job and I actually moved into a new position back in October and with that move and passing my certification I'm making about $15,000 a year more than I was before October. Just got about $1000 bonus and even though it was quite bit less than last year, I wasn't really expecting one. I work for a major Health Care organization so I'm pretty secure at the moment.

 

As I said I'm doing fine but my dad has been having a rough time and has a job interview in the great state of Texas and if everything goes well him and my mom will be moving within the next month or two

 

Most people i have heared of losing thier jobs worked at smaller retail shops.

They have to cut people because they cant pay thier employees
They cant pay thier employees because people arent buying ****
They artent buying **** because they are hoarding thier money
They are hoarding thier money because the media is telling them the economy has collapsed.

you think that MAYBE if the Media would stop with the constant "Economical meltdown of massive proportations" and encouraged people to spend money that things would recover?

 

I think that would help. I don't understand people who have stable jobs and are with good companies just stopped spending money. I haven't slowed my money spending at all. If there is a cd or dvd I want I still go out and buy it. My wife and I still go out and eat and such and we just bought a car.

This crap the media pulls always reminds me of Halloween and how they always advise people against trick or treating and all that and how theres candy out there with razor blades and such. How many reported instances have there really been on that? People need to not always believe what the news tells them.

 

Things aren't so good for me right now.

My wife used to work for Wachovia making damn good money doing the whole mortgage things.....well, you all can guess how that went. Then she found another job that paid half of what she used to make, then after we had our baby girl she went back to work to be laid off again so really it's pretty much just my income. My wife does work part time and is getting more hours, but I'm not sure if it will help much. I'm really hoping we don't lose our house, but it's looking like it might be going that way. It sucks when you paid $400k for a 2 bed/2 bath townhouse at the peak of the housing market and now they are selling brand new for $219k....these dick head people are moving in with 1/2 the mortgage I have! ha ha....I'm not bitter.

Anyway, we'll keep plugging along and deal with things as they come up.

 

I thankfully haven't really been affected by the economy, i know alot of people have been losing tons of money lately. I graduated UCF in December and now work fulltime as a software engineer for a company that I had been an intern at for around a year. The company that I work for does e-learning subcontracting for the army/navy and is doing the best it has in years. I have no investments or retirement at this point so i havent been affected in that aspect either, although i am looking at doing some investing while the market is low. I am getting married in 9 mo and me and my fiancee are looking into purchasing a home in the near future, so this is a great time for me as with all of the other people that are just starting out.

 

I have to say alls well on my side but I am in the military and currently in Iraq so not really sure how people are being affected other then what i see and read in the news.

 

Well the dow is up 250 points right now cause aparently citi posted a profit but I wouldn't get my hopes up

 

Well, since I work for a small stock brockerage firm, I see all sides of it. The good, the bad, and the ugly. People call every day freaking out and pulling every cent of their money out of their mutual fund accounts, IRA's, etc. I have noticed that the people who are fanatical about it are always the ones who like to quote MSNBC, CNN, and every other station that broadcasts negative news on the economy. Instead of listening to their financial advisor, they listen to the news. I have heard one of our financial advisors literally get into an argument with one of his customers because the customer is one of those who believes everything is 'going to hell in a handbasket'. That particular advisor has over 45 years of experience, so if I was to listen to anyone, it would be him. And some of these people are just too stupid to realize that. I understand that people are worried, but to have a damn panic attack is not to way to get things done.

I however, am not having any trouble at this point in time. I recently got a raise, as did a few others in the office. I haven't really had to make any changes to my spending, although I have chosen to. I don't go out to eat nearly as much, I don't go out on the weekends anymore, and I carpool with a friend of mine every other week to save me money. The little bit that I do definitely helps. I save up to about $150-200 a month more than I was before. I feel incredibly lucky to have a job. Even though I get annoyed with my co-workers a lot, I am glad I have a solid and stable income. All I can do is hope that the stock market doesn't take a complete and total ****, because then I'd definitely lose my job.

 

The economy turndown effected me in a good way as far as my self personally. And I am very surprised, actually perplexed on why it hasn't been worse for my occupation. We supply most automakers with OEM parts and that has seen a big reduction in business. ( This is how it helped me personally), Because I worked basically 7 days a week all last summer.. to fill my departments scheduled parts for filters..

But the Aftermarket actually picked up in production enough that everthing evened out and I'm on a 5 day work week again. ( Whew). I've been at this concrete jungle for 30 years this year, and even though I'm only 49 yrs old, it's hard to work a lot of overtime.. My whole body hurts most days after 8 hours..

And yes i still worry about not having my job because of this economy. But I just deal with it and I'm trying to save for retirement in about 15 years from now..

You really have to love your job and make it a top priority to look forward to getting old enough to stop working like a dog everyday.

all in all right now I'm set for the future as long as I stay where I'm at.. I got a nice house, and nice things, and I love my wife and family enough to enjoy life as it's dealt to me..

 

My company has been cutting the fat for several years now and we did great last year. Top performers were given a raise and bonus. Im in IT like Jack so our jobs are necessary and the only time someone is fired is due to their performance or several big clients not renewing contracts for service.

My family is going out less and buying stuff that is needed until we pay off some debt we aquirred doing some home improvements in our home that we purchased last year.

Im looking forward to some of that Obama money . Too bad its been accounted for and will be used to pay for home improvements so no paint job for now

 

'Bout ready to drop out of school and pick up 2 jobs and save up money. I hate living paycheck to paycheck, and I haven't been able to put money away since school started again.

 

God bless you IT guys IMHO.. at work anyway. Geez with our network and upcoming changes in our production recording and inventory control. ( We are gearing up for SAP), if anyone has ever dealt with that type of inventory control, we are gonna need our IT guys 100%. If I have to call any of my IT guys for anything I am nothing less than humble at your presence.. LOL. Don't **** any of them off in any way or your network won't get fixed..

 

I work in the food business, considering I'm a senior in HS and don't have the time for a full time job.

Our sales have been roughly halved compared to last year.

My hours have been cut by a lot, and I'm just making enough money to pay for phone bill, insurance, and gas. Doesn't leave too much cash for mods and whatnot anymore =( I really wish I could afford a CAI about now!